Kirsty Cunningham

Patient and extremely skilled English teacher with 15 years experience as both a teacher in a mainstream Scottish Secondary School as we as a decade working as an actual SQA Marker. My approach is to try and put my students at ease and reassure them I am there to help not to judge.

For each element I may be teaching I try to break this down into smaller chunks that are more manageable and easier to digest. At the start when I first begin tutoring someone I will provide extensive scaffolding for tasks. I do a lot of model answering asking them to mirror how I have done something. Over time I slowly but surely remove the scaffolding piece by piece and in doing so the end product is hopefully a student who feels much more confident and secure at tackling difficult activities independently.

I believe very fundamentally that a teacher/tutor's role is to instil confidence, not take it away. As I have taught my subject for many years I know exactly how to motivate and engage young people in their learning. I am firm but fair in terms of homework and don't ever give out meaningless or unnecessary work to be completed.

Lastly, I always go the extra mile for my students. If that means they need me to text encouragement or a Facetime call before an exam, if I can, I strive to do my very best to help everyone I teach reach their potential.